The present invention relates generally to a passenger seat with enhanced comfort to facilitate side sleeping, and more particularly, to a lay-flat passenger seat including a seatback having an integrated side sleep support assembly configured to adjust inward deflection in the seatback when the seat is occupied in a sleeping configuration.
Passenger seats found aboard commercial airliners and other conveyances can be configured to recline during flight for enhanced comfort and to alleviate fatigue. While economy class seats typically include a static seat bottom and reclining seatback, premium class seats typically include an adjustable seat bottom, seatback and legrest. In the upright sitting position required for taxi, takeoff and landing, the seat bottom can be at a shallow angle to horizontal, the seatback near vertical, and the legrest stowed in a generally vertical orientation against the front of the seat bottom. During flight, the seating components of lie-flat capable seats can adjust such that the top surfaces thereof reside in a common plane to form a continuous flat bed. A seat can additionally include a headrest that can form part of the bed.
Regardless of seating class, seat bottoms, seatbacks and legrests are typically constructed with a frame, cushion and upholstery. The frame provides rigid structural support, the cushion provides comfort and dampens impact, and the upholstery conceals and protects the cushion and frame and additionally provides seat aesthetics.
Regardless of frame and cushion type, conventional seats typically have uniform deflection across the width and/or height of the seatback. In other words, the degree of achievable deflection in the seatback is predetermined, non-adjustable, and constant across the full width and/or height of the seatback. While such construction may be comfortable when the seat occupant lays flat on their back, such construction is uncomfortable in a side sleeping position due to misalignment of a spine of the passenger with the planar bed surface.
As such, what is needed is a seatback that allows additional deflection in predetermined areas to facilitate a comfortable side sleeping position. It is further desirable to provide adjustable deflection in predetermined areas of the seatback for greater overall seat adjustability and to accommodate passengers of different sizes, builds and weights. Deflection adjustability can be practiced in the seatback as well as other seat components including, but not limited to, the seat bottom, legrest and headrest.